Depicting Her Essence

Depicting Her Essence, 2018

Residual Love,
We’ll Grow on You

We’ll Grow on You, Relief Painting on canvas

We’ll Grow on You

Painting is a process of transforming or protecting and sprucing up the surface of a canvas or a fence or even a wall. The process of henna however is that of giving or making, much like baking or making organic fuel by making cow patties that are slapped on a vertical surface such as an exterior wall, in neat rows, to dry in the sun.

The purpose of henna or baking unlike painting is creating something for consumption, something with an application, namely beautification of the body. These works all use henna as a medium and tell a story about women.

A Suitable Girl, sculpture

If the market value of a bride could be determined, it would include the services that she has the potential to provide, such as the ability to do house work, inheritance or a salary that she might be drawing that may eventually be contributed towards
the household.

“Average height”, “medium complexion” are adjectives often used to describe a girl with relatively modest appearance in classified ads for girls of marriageable age, not that different from those on online forums. Depicting Her Essence encompasses an understanding that the spirit of a person supersedes her physical attributes, much like a light that a person carries
within herself.